When should a financial aid package appeal take place? Now that we have EA admissions packages? Or wait until the RD decisions and FA packages come in to use as comparison? I am wondering if I should try to appeal the EA schools now because then they will be busy once RD is decided and maybe funds will be tighter? Not sure if I am thinking about this process in the right way so please share your thoughts and experiences.
What exactly are the grounds for your appeal?
If your finances have changed materially since the application (house destroyed in a hurricane) then appeal now. Get your documentation together and appeal.
If there hasn’t been a change- you are just appealing because you want more money? Like every other family in America? Get in line.
Not sure what you are asking. What facts are you going to be able to contribute to suggest that the EA package was miscalculated?
Agree with @blossom.
What is your basis for the school to reconsider the need based aid it has awarded you with an EA acceptance?
In addition, the first sentence you need to be prepared to state is “your college is my child’s first choice, and if you can make it affordable, we will immediately commit to our kid attending, and send a deposit.”
Are you prepared to do that…or are you thinking you can play all sides against one another?
Another one for what is the basis for your appeal?
What is the school’s aid policy? DO they commit to meeting 100% demonstrated need?
Did you run the net price calculator? If yes, is there a big discrepancy between the results from the NPC and your aid package?
If you are looking for a financial review based on what a peer school gave you, then you may have to wait for that package.
Also keep in mind, that you can ask now, but since you have until May 1 to commit, I would not expect them to start entertaining appeals until they do the RD. Even though they have a lot of data when it comes to enrollment management, they may be saving their money to do some preferential packaging for student s who will best fill the institutional mission.
Schools really hate it when people try to negotiate based on the cost or package of other schools. If you decide to appeal your FA, do not use the work “match” or “compare”. Here are some thoughts on this:
- Your odds are higher of getting improved aid if you can show some change in your family finances since you sent the original info in, or you think there is some concrete thing they did not take into account in the initial FA award.
- I have successfully negotiated a better FA awards based on another college's award. But (1) you need a comparable or better ranked college award in hand; (2) they do need to think you are very likely to attend if they improve the offer. And some colleges will not do this regardless.
We discussed it with two of one of my kid’s top choices (both were top LACs, using a 3rd very highly rank university’s offer). The phrasing we used was, “My kid loves your school and would really like to attend, but it is difficult for us to make that decision because she has an offer from school X that is less expensive. Could we request a review of our FA to see if it could be improved?” Both schools then asked me to send them a copy of the better offer (which I had scanned and ready to go in case they asked). I did also have one tidbit of additional family financial info to offer as well. One school adjusted. One school didn’t budge an inch.
- Just because they improve it for freshman year doesn't mean they will for every year thereafter.
So… if you don’t have any change in your situation, you are pretty sure they completely reamed out your private financial details already and you have nothing else to offer there that could help, and you don’t have any better offers from comparable or better schools in hand – I would wait.
The reason would be change in finances with second child also starting in private school at the same time as older starts college. This was not a part of original application. Also variance in NPC calculator estimate vs actual package.
Unless second child MUST go to private school (not college) for a good reason (e.g. medical, or significant educational…not elective but needed)…this will not be considered. That is a family choice.
You could appeal based on both of those things. But I agree that a private school decision is usually just a family person choice (one that we made – but I knew we wouldn’t get any break on D1’s college costs because I decided to leave D2 in her private school even after a divorce and no help from the other parent when D1 was a HS senior). What I mean is, you can ask. But they may not adjust.
But if you ask now, you really can’t go back and try again if you have a better FA offer from a comparable or better school. In our case, I think it was a combo of things – better offer from a very highly ranked school, a school that hadn’t taken a very firm line on not adjusting FA, and having a bit of extra FA information.
If I were you… I’d wait until I had other offers.